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I had a wonderful opportunity to visit with a forward thinking interventional cardiologist yesterday! I was impressed with his willingness to learn and hear more about dentistry and the oral systemic connections, and all the wonderful new less invasive procedures he is performing.

BUT I was BLOWN AWAY with one of his statements. He stated he couldn’t believe how little he was taught in school about health and wellness. WHAT????? REALLY???? He was completely serious. He said at maximum it was two days of his entire career. It seems as though I keep getting glances into how our HEALTHCARE issues got started. Our training never started with HEALTH it only focused on the CARE to give of the disease.

Educating ourselves, our team and our patients on HEALTH sounds like the first place we need to focus more attention on. How do you feel about this highly intelligent, highly trained, expert in the field of cardiology’s statement?

Resorption is an uncommon and troublesome dental condition in which the body’s own cells eat away and dissolve tooth structure. It can at times be confused as decay on a dental x-ray. It also can be very aggressive and quick to destroy healthy tooth structure.

See the 2 dimensional x-ray here.

Here you see two teeth (premolars) both with resorption not decay. The distal of #20 has been restored with composite due to easy access from the missing tooth. However, the outcome is not as favorable on tooth #21. See the cross section view of tooth #20 and #21 in a 3Dcone beam scan.

Now you begin to visualize that more of the tooth has been effected and makes the prognosis poor.

TOOTH # 20, 3D CROSS SECTIONALTOOTH #21, 3D CROSS SECTIONAL

The first question was resorption or decay?

The second question is how would you treatment plan this area now?

Fill tooth #21.

Crown tooth #21

Root Canal and Crown #21

Extract #21 and place Implant

Extract #21 and #20

Extract #21 and 20 and place Implants in site #19 and #21 and restore with an Implant Supported 3 unit Bridge

Once again, a great reason to begin to utilize the high-tech imaging method of 3D cone beam computed tomography. It can help make treatment planning in advance more accurate.

What motivates an adult student? The motivators seem to evolve as you become older.

Malcolm Knowles, a pioneer in adult education, popularized the concept of five teaching strategies for adults, which stated that students learn best when:

Adults understand WHY something is important to know or do

Adults have the freedom to learn in their own way

Learning is experiential

The time is right for them to learn

The process is positive and encouraging

Our online learning platform, I am thrilled to say, actually answers each of these 5 principles of adult learning. Each course begins with an introduction where the main focus is to explain the why behind the importance of the subject matter. A variety of supportive tools are provided as action steps to learn. Therefore, if you prefer to read the information it is available or if you prefer to watch a video, a virtual instructor is there to guide you through the topic. The platform encourages you to pull from your previous experiences and knowledge base. The beauty of online learning is that the time is ALWAYS right for you. And finally the platform was designed to help with the accountability of learning and therefore, a fun way to earn digital badges occurs as you work through your assignments.

Relevance Health is proud to be offering such a great platform at such a reasonable cost. Now you have no excuses to get started and begin to learn how to optimize lives through prevention.

Thank you all for participating in this wrap up initiative for Heart Health Awareness in February and growing our IOA network.

At this time IOA’s largest reach socially has been about 2,000. Together we could make a push for 10,000. We will send out an email update to you mid-day on Friday to let you know what the reach number has been so you will know how many more views we need to reach our goal.

Please follow the instructions below to help you share the post. IOA Facebook will post the video at 7:30 AM CST. We suggest you share the post at 8 AM, 1 PM and 8 PM more passionately each time. For example: “Help us reach our goal…” or “we believe we can stop heart disease from being the # 1 killer by 2020… “.

STEP 1: INVITING YOUR NETWORK AND FRIENDS TO LIKE THE IOA FACEBOOK PAGE

DO THIS TONIGHT:

Log in to your Facebook page

At the top of your facebook is a “Search for people, places and things” type in that search pane, “Institute of Arteriology”.

Click Enter or Search.

This will take you to the IOA Facebook page, if you have not already LIKED the page click on the LIKE button on the right side of the banner image. It will change to LIKED.

If you have time you want to invite your friends/network to like the IOA page.

Look under the profile picture image on the left.

Go to “Invite friends to like this page” click on that and start inviting your friends, as many as you want or all of them to like the page, this will grow the IOA network to maximize the likes on the page and ensure people see the page posts, as well as the video. Make sure when you are sharing post to always encourage people to go to the page and like and share the post.

FRIDAY MORNING

STEP 2: INSTRUCTIONS ON SHARING A FACEBOOK POST

Either search for the IOA Facebook page or scroll on your feed to find the IOA post on your newsfeed. (Should post at 7:30 CST)

Once you find the post, click SHARE and a drop down will appear with 3 options, click on the option that says; “Share…” (it is the second line option)

The 2nd line option “Share…” allows you to type something to your Facebook audience that is specific or personal from you, but also shows the original post.

ASKING PEOPLE TO LIKE & SHARE IS THE KEY TO GOING VIRAL, along with the hashtags, so make sure you hashtag your personal post with the hashtags below and any other hashtags you have or have used in your network.

You can create your own hashtag and use existing hashtags. The way you do this is by clicking on the # pound sign and then typing, abbreviating, etc anything you want that you want to trend and this puts all the posts, info, etc under one hashtag as a link to view all things related to that hashtag, so for example… if you go to the American Heart Association FB page and click on one of their hashtags you can see all FB posts by anything in the world that has used that hashtag.

Learning can be powerful, energize you, and make you have a can do attitude. But if you find yourself or your team stuck in a can’t do attitude then it is time to EAT A FROG! The suggestion is try to create a little bit of fun around learning or at least an active role towards learning… try a theme based learning project. Start with self-help first if science sounds too much of a leap. Brian Tracy is a great place to start. His books are short, easy to read, and packed full of useful tips and information. EAT THAT FROG – 21 Great ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time is a perfect theme book. Fill your office with green, frogs or lily pads as a visual to keep focused on your new project.

Here are the top 5 topics I love out of this book:

Apply the 80/20 rule to everything. 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on the top 20%.

Set the table. Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin.

Plan every day in advance. Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning can save you five or ten minutes in execution.

Practice creative procrastination. Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.

Consider the consequences. Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.

Perhaps being a strong leader on your team is your biggest ugliest frog. But maybe you are spending the majority of your time swimming around with the tadpoles. Make a change today, set your table, organize yourself, write down your goals and then guess what you just ATE A FROG!

As each year passes me by, I try to remember the good old days. I remember how weird it was to see the silly glasses on new years eve have 20 rather than a 19. I remember thinking it was so cool to stay up late and see the ball drop in New York. I remember trying to stay awake to see the ball drop in New York. I remember I was in the rural area of Colorado bringing in the Millennium in case everything went down in the computer world and life as we knew it wasn’t the same. But what if our brain health suddenly took a turn for the worse and we couldn’t remember anything? What if life as we knew it was not the same???

Maybe because I am APO-E gene 3/4 and I have watched my grandfather die a healthy fit man from Alzheimer’s, and my dad beginning to show signs of dementia…but I’m concerned about keeping my brain as healthy as my heart. I want to live to be old and cute and called “precious” by my grandchildren. But I don’t just want to live I want to be lively and engage with my future family.

Good news! I think there are ways to achieve that. Of course there is ALL of the benefits of reducing the inflammation aspect of preventive health we are passionate about, but I am thinking about exercising our mind too. I was privileged about 10 or 15 years ago to watch a lecture at our Dallas County Dental Society Meeting. A woman by the name of Sandra Bond Chapman shared with us her insight into brain health and function. I remember at the time being 15 or so years younger and thinking what is she talking about? My brain functions just fine. But when I recently connected with her and her amazing facility in Dallas, I saw her message in a new and inspiring light. She spearheads the world renown “Center for Brain Health” associated with The University of Texas at Dallas. I am currently reading her book “Make Your Brain Smarter”. I am most relieved to see a strong message that we can regain cognitive function. I am most frustrated to hear that multi-tasking is simply terrible for your brain health. I am all in for learning nine habits to keep your brain fit at any age. I think I am going to do some of her examples with my children. Teaching them young how to improve their problem-solving and higher-reasoning capacity may just help them ward off the genetic tendencies in our family for brain un-health.

I encourage you to read her book. I am also inspired to see if she or one of her team members will contribute more to Relevance Health Education and YOUniversity. Please comment if you have studied any of the Brain Center’s techniques. Wishing you a Happy New Year and a Healthy New Brain!!!

If you had asked me six months ago about my opinion on Thermagraphy, I would have had to say WHAT??? But man, if you asked me today about my opinion on THERMAGRAPHY I would be giving you a big high five and a WHAT WHAT!!! I have had many amazing opportunities to co-manage patients with some wonderful doctors that really get it! Especially the influence that the mouth or at least an unhealthy one can have to the rest of the body. Dr. Katherine Woods and I were so proud of ourselves on this one patient that is the base of our January case study. Dr. Woods had identified this seemingly healthy young lady as being very anxious about heart disease due to the fact that she had lost her father early in life from a heart attack. Of course she opted for advanced inflammatory and heart health testing. Dr. Woods quickly processed her results and found large amounts of inflammation.

We have all heard the term “selfie” being used more and more the past few years. After taking a selfie with my daughter, Jordan I realized I had no choice but to move forward with my smile makeover. I never linked the color of my teeth, they were very gray—a side effect of well water I drank as a child. Bleaching my teeth would never improve the color of my teeth—it would only make them very splotchy. In the past when I took a professional photograph I always paid extra to have my teeth professionally enhanced in the photo.

The word “wellness” has become more popular in recent years and its approach to placing focus on a person’s overall health has changed the way that I practice as a dental hygienist. I spent years frustrated by bleeding inflamed gums and periodontal infections that I couldn’t seem to get under control despite my best efforts. Little did I know that there were some very key elements missing

What an exciting time to be a dental professional!

Unlike most regions of the body the oral cavity is perpetually populated by microorganisms and their harmful by products. The oral cavity contains over 500 different pathogens and is the GATEWAY to the inner body. With the benefit of today’s technology we are constantly discovering more about the undeniable relationship between the oral cavity and systemic health. What an exciting time to be a dental professional!